pâture

Forms

pâture f (plural pâtures)^[1] Old French paisture (c. 1120) and pasture (c. 1170); the spelling pâture dates from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pasture, inherited from Late Latin pastūra (“grazing, fodder”), a Late Latin word (4th century, Palladius and Jerome) formed from pastum, the supine of Latin pāscō (“to feed, graze”).^[4][5][6][7] In Medieval Latin it also meant “right of pasture” (774) and “pasture land” (807).^[4][5] The word is related to paître and appât.^[8][3]

Cognate with Italian pastura, Occitan pastura and Spanish pastura.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cambridge Psalter (first half of the 12th century) paistures are the pastures where the shepherd leads his flock, an image of the people of Israel: En paistures de erbes aclinad mei, “He made me lie down in pastures of grass”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word soon had the general sense “pasture land” (Chrétien de Troyes, 1174–1187).^[4][5] In law, vaine pâture (1306) was the right to graze cattle on unenclosed land after the harvest, since 1598 also the land itself.^[4][5]

From about 1180 (Marie de France) it also meant the food of animals, and in the 13th century the animals' search for food, as in aler en pasture.^[4][5] It was applied to human food by about 1245, and figuratively, from 1268, to anything that feeds a faculty or a feeling, often with a pejorative tone, as in donner en pâture.^[4][5] Its derivative pâturer (1160) gave pâturage (1200), now the most current word of the group.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Paistures “pastures” appears in the Cambridge Psalter.^[4][5]
• 1174–1187 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it in the general sense “pasture”.^[4]
• c. 1180 – Marie de France uses it for animals' food.^[4][5]
• c. 1245 – It is used of human food.^[4][5]
• 1268 – First figurative use, “that which feeds a feeling”.^[4][5]
• 1306 – Vaine pasture appears as a legal term.^[4][5]
• 16th century – The spelling pâture appears.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Food for animals, especially what they find for themselves.^[4][8]
2. Fodder, grass or hay given to livestock.^[9]
3. A pasture, a place where livestock graze, also pâturage.^[8][9]
4. (law) Vaine pâture: the right of villagers to graze their cattle on unfenced land after the harvest, until it is sown again.^[8][4]
5. (figurative) Something that feeds the mind or a passion: donner en pâture, livrer en pâture, to throw something to the public or to someone's appetite.^[8][1][5]

Word family

• pâturer

Related words

• paître
• paisson
• pâturage
• appât
• Latin pāscō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 763a
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette